City of Philadelphia: Don’t sell PGW

A new twist in the idea of selling PGW:

Why would we sell PGW when demand for natural gas distribution to homes and businesses is about to sky-rocket due to widespread adoption of gas-powered microgeneration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgeneration

Assuming it would take 2-4 years to close a sale, by then microgeneration fueled by natural gas fuel cells will likely be all the rage, replacing increasing swaths of centralized electricity generation throughout municipalities that have natural gas service. With enhanced energy independence and blackout proofing, and 10% savings on electricity and home heating costs, everyone will be switching from dirtier coal and other sources in the default mix of grid-supplied electrical power. Gas demand will eventually — ? — triple?.

 

This is not a good time to sell our cooperatively-owned gas distribution system, PGW

 

It’s a good time to double down and invest in maintaining our infrastructure and making sure it can deliver more gas to all these new fuel cells, and do so on a different demand timetable due to differing electricity vs. gas usage patterns. Overhead on the distribution system will increase incrementally, while revenues from gas delivered will increase by — ? — double?

 

I suspect that energy companies (such as Exelon) are diversifying into all energy sources, and want to grab the Philadelphia market for gas by buying PGW before City residents are able to slip from out of their coal pockets into something a bit cleaner and owned by the people. Exelon is looking at losing 1/4 of its market in direct electrical energy distribution, and wants to have a piece of the intermediate energy distribution pie in the form of natural gas. And what happens when Philadelphians start demanding 100% clean natural gas (ie: if it was got by fracking at all, then it was clean fracking adhering to standards that Corbett won’t ever even consider, let alone enforce).

Although plans to sell PGW have been in the works for years (that’s right YEARS!), Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the story most recently at:

Philadelphia Inquirer (PhillyNews.com): Assessing PGW’s liquid natural gas future

Even if we sold only the LNG terminal, we’d be selling our ability to stabilize natural gas prices using reserve capacity there — and our ability to bargain effectively with suppliers. How seriously are they going to take us if we’re hooked straight to pipeline without any buffer capacity, and 1/3 of our buildings rely on natural gas for operating microgeneration combined heat and power plants?

 

City of Philadelphia: Don’t sell PGW Copyright Robert Monk, 2012

Source: http://www.phillylicensedelectrician.com/city-of-philadelphia-dont-sell-pgw/

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